A decade ago, former Prime Minister John Howard announced a strategy to save the Murray-Darling Basin, ravaged by drought and overuse, “once and for all”. Now some states and communities say the pain of restoring the river is too great. Scientists are warning Howard’s vision of saving the river hangs in the balance. My story … Continue reading
(Photograph by Angela Wylie) ‘Antarctica unseen by humanity even 200 years ago, divines our future and archives our past. It matters to people as never before … The ice core I helped bore and bag, catalogued with my initials, will soon be translated into data, turned into graphs, and plugged into climate models. It will have a bit … Continue reading
What a buzz to find my work alongside pieces by the likes of Garner and Flanagan in this collection, published by BlackInc and out today. Editor Geordie Williamson says some lovely things about the very grim piece chosen for this anthology, “Grave Barrier Reef”, describing it as “balanced, finely-grained reportage … a monument of rational … Continue reading
My story on the sacking by CSIRO of one of the world’s top climate scientists coincides with some just published science which mades the sea levels discussed here look deeply conservative (In the Washington Post here). It all again underlines how desperately we need this expertise, and the continued collection & analysis of long-haul, boring, … Continue reading
‘We were diving in dissolving reef … it was like diving in ectoplasm. It was awful’ – Prof Justin Marshall. In the June edition of The Monthly I have a long piece on the devastating coral bleaching now playing out on the Great Barrier Reef. At the same time as news emerges that the Australian … Continue reading
For the past couple of weeks I’ve been engaged as a “guest blogger” by the University of Melbourne to provide some guided commentary on its “Pursuit” communications platform around the Paris talks. Mostly the focus was to delve into the university’s in-house expert resource, but I had a long leash. After the Agreement, the blog … Continue reading
I’ve been trying for several months to get back to PNG to do some on-the-ground reporting about the climate impacts playing out there – most urgently the whopping El Nino. Sadly I couldn’t get the budget or editorial interest – so this piece for The Guardian is the next best option, reporting long distance, relying … Continue reading
My second piece for Yale Environment 360, a website produced out of Yale University to showcase reporting, analysis, opinion and debate on environmental science. This article presents a snapshot of the state of solar in Australia, rounding up the policy and politics that have put solar units on so many Australian homes (highest proportion of … Continue reading
My feature for New Scientist magazine, looking for the white lemuroid possum – the endangered polar bear of the tropics – in the cloud forests of Far North Queensland. (Sorry, subs required)- Link here Continue reading
My report for Yale Environment 360: A sophisticated and challenging experiment in Antarctica is the latest effort to study ocean acidification in the polar regions, where frigid waters are expected to feel the ecological impacts of acidic conditions hard, fast and soon. http://e360.yale.edu/feature/scientists_focus_on_polar_waters_as_threat_of_acidification_grows/2752/ Continue reading
